San Diego State suddenly finds itself back in the market for a sports conference, barely a year after announcing it would leave the Mountain West next summer for the Big East in football and Big West in everything else.

Technically, nothing has changed; SDSU is still leaving the Mountain West after the current academic year. In reality, everything has.

Boise State, its western partner in the jump to the Big East, announced it is staying in the Mountain West, and even SDSU athletic director Jim Sterk — after months of steadfastly, even stubbornly, saying his school was committed to the Big East — conceded in a statement that the news “represents a significant change in conference alignment.”

So now what? Stay in the Mountain West? Or go it alone into uncharted territory?

Neither choice is particularly enticing, at least compared to what could have been.

Understand that SDSU is a state institution that is largely funded by taxpayer dollars and that wants to play big-time NCAA Division I football. Now mix in a biting recession and some of the nation’s most stringent gender equity guidelines, meaning what limited financial resources are available can’t be poured into football and men’s basketball while ignoring the 16 other teams on campus. SDSU’s athletic department needs money to thrive or even just survive, and the Big East offered it.

All things being equal, SDSU never would have left the Mountain West. But all things haven’t been equal. SDSU, according to school officials, received about $1.4 million last year in Mountain West television revenue and is projected to get $600,000 this year.

Conservative estimates for a new football TV contract in the Big East were $6.4 million per year. To Sterk and SDSU President Elliot Hirshman, it was a no-brainer.

If there is a tragic element to recent developments, it is that neither option facing SDSU likely offers the same revenue potential. And that could have profound repercussions across the athletic department — from assistant coaches in Olympic sports, to football funding, to a new practice facility for the Top 25 men’s basketball team.

But it’s the boat they find themselves in. Here’s a look at some factors in deciding which way to paddle.

The timeline

What once was an open-ended proposition, at least until the Aztecs officially joined the Big East on July 1, suddenly has a looming deadline.

Part of Boise State’s contract to remain in the Mountain West includes a stipulation that the conference must consider SDSU as the 12th football member before anyone else (read: BYU). That clause expires Jan. 31.

The problem: SDSU might not be able to wait for hard numbers on TV contracts to emerge from both conferences, potentially forcing it to make a hasty decision based on speculation and innuendo.

A new Big East TV deal has been delayed several times and might not be finalized for months, or at least until the networks actually know who will be in the conference. The Mountain West has renegotiated its primary TV contract with CBS, allowing the conference to package secondary rights to another network. But we don’t know how much that will be worth, either.